Author Archive

In the framework of the competition Out of Balance. Critique of the Presentorganized by Bauhaus Dessau Foundation and magazine ARCH+ , unequal access to water in Medellín (Colombia) has been observed and visualized through lenses of critical cartography and urban political ecology. Research shows in detail how the transnationalisation of the a public water company allters patterns of water access at the local level.

After extended exploration of hidden historical traces of Berlin-Moabit, we joined local youth theatre group JTB in collective re-writing of the Moabit’s past. In the framework of youth festival Festiwalla, we tested the principles of collaborative narration using carefully selected objects from Moabit, which served as triggers for diverse plots, including historical and fictional characters. Festival audience had chance to choose character-object, place it in the spatial and temporal context of Moabit with a help of our ‘slot-machine’ and develop a scene ‘activating’ the selected object. Objective Dialogue Y-table operated as ‘theatrical machine’ for creation of various theatrical-improvisations led by the JTB crew at the end of each festival day.

29

12 2013

Booklet > Objective Dialogues Y-table, A Manual for Collaborative Narration, with Alex Head and Jan Bovelet, September 2013

‘The Objective Dialogues Y-Table consisted of a three way, Y-shaped table with 4 analytical examination stations, a display system, examination sheets, audio recorders and a facilitator. The examination stations refer to classical scientific methods in order to question the contemporary alliances between scientific research and the arts. This is equally indicated by the title of the project: Objective Dialogues are not objective but about objects’

27

11 2013

Introductory lecture gave an overview of ParaArtFormations activities, focusing on the project Carrito Cultural. After general concept/toolbox has been discussed with festival participants, we moved through all RE: stations in order to build a prototype collectively. Process has been seen as coop-work between festival participants and ‘maker experts’, built on the initial intention of the Carrito Cultural project.

27

11 2013

JUST Sleeping District? Lazdynai for Lunatics is the practical element of the course “The Production of Space in the Digital Age” on the Masters of Critical Urban Studies at the European Humanities University in Vilnius. The course explores both the potential that digital mapping technologies offer for critical studies of spatial issues, and also considers how digital technologies are impacting on ways of perceiving, managing and experiencing spaces.

11 2013

As a part of the ephemeral City-of-Art, in which participation/collaboration has been redefined, project Carrito Cultural has been invited to ‘translate’ cultural development strategies for the River Medellin into local context of Graz. Social significance of collective and local knowledge represented starting point in building ‘production’ area of the imaginary city, involving local bike-enthusiasts REBIKEL and citizens of Graz. Another cultural activation vehicle has been developed from abandoned bikes founded at the streets of Graz and activated through the set of actions, spanning from public salsa classes till small reparations of the visitor’s bikes.

17

04 2013

The Anxious Prop collective has been invited to join Wasteland Twinning Forum in order to build another version of the Y-table that facilitate the generation of collective knowledge. Research vehicle called Objective Dialogues served as analytical station, proposing diverse methods for investigation of the wasteland-objects submitted from seven different sites. The table was equipped with 3d scanner and 3 stations (digital scale, measuring tools, magnifying glass), attached to the classification shelf, allowing pairs of investigators to build narratives around chosen object. The whole process concluded by recording a short summary and bringing generated sheet of information back to the cabinet, permitting other participants of the forum to read and reinterpret presented data.

17

04 2013

As a part of tactical-urbanism strategy along the River Medellín, driven by alternative cultural infrastructure Carrito Cultural, action Dia de Playita invited local artists, homeless people living at the location and the random citizens into day-long creative-occupation of the space outside the master-plan. In the unusual setup of no-man’s-land (river sedimentation), innovative participation models took place in order to re-communicate inaccessibility, pollution and invisibility of the city’s main axis.

Current activities include teaching Localized Culture Industries at master-course on Critical Urban Studies, which takes a multi-disciplinary, social science based approach to studying urban forms in contemporary Central and Eastern Europe.

08

04 2013

Article > From a Patchwork of Territories to a Network of Collective Spaces , PEAR magazine (Paper for Emerging Architectural Research), Issue 5: Medellín Through a Kaleidoscope, London, January 2013.

The radical transformation of Medellín’s cityscape has been recognised internationally, through dramatic pictures of cable-cars flying over shantytowns, spectacular Library Parks designed by prominent architects and most recently the installation of a public escalator in the most violent barrio of the city. Furthermore, the Medellín-model has become a desirable path of development for many Latin American cities, embedded in social inequality, weak infrastructure and high rates of criminality.

08

04 2013

K67_Urban Router is a mobile platform for investigation of digital public space, offering offline-intranet as a basic infrastructure for diverse cultural formats, ranging from collective mapping till tools for over passing juridical obstacles of free sharing. Situated in the upgraded Kiosk-K67, this offline-hub provides collectively created digital items and services, and it is accessible exclusively on the site. So-called ‘Kiosk-Cloud’ became interface for exchange and tool for engaging in the production of the socio-spatial configuration of the site.

23

10 2012

As a part of the Lecture Series under the title Contesting Space-Architecture as a Social Practice, PUF had a chance to present diverse ways of building alternative infrastructures, in order to oppose current situation in which majority is excluded from the urban governance. Beyond political protests, pranks and social-media driven gatherings, lecture had aim to reposition architect as a responsible person in the struggle for political in the public arena and to see potentials of performative planning for creation of collective knowledge.Particular focus has been given to formation of alternative cultural platforms, tools for tactical urbanism and offline-communication devices.

23

10 2012

Cultural activation of the Medellín River has been under agenda of the project Carrito Cultural (mobile cultural infrastructure), exploring potential of tactical interventions at particular spots in order to change citizen’s perceptions of the abandoned and hardly accessible area right in the middle of the vibrant metropolis. By inviting street-artist collective Deúniti to paint large-scale mural at the one of the river sedimentations, atmosphere of the conventional city-beach has been staged, involving homeless people that live at the location and inviting random citizens that use the river occasionally for the bike-based recreation. After capturing this unusual situation, local percussion collective Alibombo has borrowed us sound background produced at the car’s cemetery.

23

10 2012

On the occasion of the exhibition The World Is Not Fair, AXP collective was invited to intervene in the pavilion of Institut für Raumexperimente under the title Translation Acts. For that purpose site-specific installation has been built, offering possibility of collective writing on pirate-box driven Etherpad Lite. Participants had chance to write a collective poem, to develop color based pattern and to do the mash-up from the given texts.

21

07 2012

How seven Mayors didn’t kill the Ghost? graffiti on the abandoned beer-bar Tauro Ragas, serve as a trigger to dig into complex past and question blurred future of the once important social space. Alternative visualization strategies has been practiced with students from EHU and activists from Archfondas, during the 3 days productive-camping at another underused cultural space KultFlux. Retracing famous sculpture of Tauro and bringing it back to original location in the sort of religious procession, opened up participative photo exhibition and invites people to rethink existing cultural developments embedded in commodification of leisure.

The lecture introduced the concept of critical cartography in the digital and internet era, focusing on collaborative mapping strategies and diversification of mapping agents, as well as experimental activist/artistic drawings. The idea of the formation of collective knowledge through mapping was elaborated by introducing strategies of counter-mapping, networks-mapping and crisis-mapping.

30

05 2012

Mobile cultural infrastructure at the River Medellín, Medellín, Oct/Nov. 2011

In collaboration with El Puente Lab, platform for artistic and cultural production, Carrito Cultural has been developed as a mobile toolbox for the set of interventions along the river. It offers diverse spatial and programatic scenarios, which have aim to transform periphery character of the river through cultural inclusion. This bastardized vehicle serve both as receiver and emitter of location-based data and uses open-source mapping to visualize new cultural geographies.

22

02 2012

Inability of Master Plan (based on infinite growth) to deal with the climate change asks for the socio-cultural shift and micro-urbanism strategies. Alternative infrastructures in the form of offline sharing, crowd-based finance models or low-tech energy producers, appear as a creative answer to urban uncertainties. PUF presented new forms of planning based on resources-sharing, DIY culture and self-made infrastructures, with an aim to provoke discussion about non-technocratic ways to deal with the climatic turbulence.

21

12 2011

In the shadow of current Medellin’s megaprojects plenty of small-scale initiatives have grown, offering alternative socio-cultural developments. Those critical approaches in the form of resistance and proactive interventionalism question current urban development mechanisms based on control and exclusion of the majority. Environmental activism, new forms of participation, alternative education or crowd-based cultural jamming represent diverse ways to construct collective spaces, quite the opposite to idea of creating territories. This movie tries to trace a variety of self-generated initiatives and contrast them with over-scaled plans of municipality by putting forward the perception of kids, cyclist movement and local artists.